Bradford says Bloor West businesses watched sales fall. Nobody measured it.
Claim“Today the Court of Appeal confirmed what I said on Bloor Street W., in Etobicoke on Tuesday: where bike lanes go is a decision for elected governments, not for courtrooms. For almost two years, the future of Toronto’s streets sat in legal limbo. Drivers sat in gridlock. Businesses on Bloor West watched their sales fall. The Mayor spent those two years cheering on a courtroom fight instead of fixing the street. That’s two years this city doesn’t get back. Here’s what today’s decision doesn’t change: the best people to decide what happens on Toronto’s streets are still Torontonians. My message to Queen’s Park is simple. You’ve made your point. Now let the city do this job, with the communities who live on these streets, and work with Toronto’s next mayor instead of around him. My commitment from Tuesday stands, and today removed the last excuse for delay. As Mayor, I’ll take the bike lanes on Bloor Street West, from South Kingsway to Resurrection Road, out in my first year and restore the vehicle lanes. And I’ll build cyclists something better than a painted line on an arterial road: a real network of trails in our ravines and hydro corridors, plowed in winter, and routes on quieter streets. That promise doesn’t depend on any courtroom, and it never did. Mayor Chow should accept today’s decision, end the legal chapter for good, and sit down with the province on an orderly plan. If she won’t, voters can choose a mayor in October who will.”
The City monitored this corridor for two years and never published a business figure. No study of a Bloor bike lane has ever found sales fall.